Thank you, and thanks to the committee members for the opportunity to provide our insight and perspective on your consideration of the enablement of an optional third party habitat banking system as a component of Bill C-68.
My name is Paul Norris. I'm President of the Ontario Waterpower Association. I'd like to state at the outset that our organization is in strong support of the inclusion in legislation of third party habitat banking. Not only can such a tool contribute to our collective desired outcome of sustainable fisheries, but in so doing it can foster positive and productive partnerships and innovation on the landscape.
By way of introduction, the OWA represents the common and collective interests of the owners and operators of Ontario's 224 waterpower facilities. They are located from Cornwall to Kenora, with installed capacities ranging from less than 20 kilowatts to more than 2,000 megawatts, and built as early as 1898 and as recently as 2018.
Our membership of more than 140 includes environmental, engineering, legal, financial and construction firms; equipment manufacturers and suppliers; municipalities; and indigenous communities. Waterpower is the electricity engine upon which the initial economic prosperity of the province of Ontario was built, and it remains the backbone of an affordable, reliable, sustainable energy system.
It is of specific relevance to the matter under consideration by the committee that our association has the regulatory responsibility for the environmental assessment process for virtually all waterpower development in Ontario through the provisions of the Class Environmental Assessment for Waterpower Projects, of which the OWA is the proponent. Approved by the minister of the environment in 2008, the objective of the Class Environmental Assessment is to help ensure that projects are planned in an environmentally responsible manner. An additional objective of the Class EA is to coordinate and integrate the multiplicity of environmental approvals and public involvement processes that are relevant to planning a waterpower project.
With respect to DFO's mandate, the Class EA states:
...a waterpower project will almost always involve review and possible Authorization under the federal Fisheries Act and studies conducted under the class EA should involve collection of appropriate information on fish and fish habitat. The completion of an undertaking under the Class EA does not remove Fisheries and Oceans Canada's decision-making authority under the Fisheries Act but it is expected that a proponent using this Class EA will satisfy the substantive planning requirements related to completing a Fisheries Act authorization.
It is precisely this “one project, one process” approach of the Class EA that enables the consideration and the application of an array of tools, such as habitat banking, to achieve the objectives of the myriad legislative requirements to which a waterpower project is subject.
Embedded in the Class Environmental Assessment as well is the mitigation sequence within which the concept of third party habitat banking would be utilized. In short, the Class EA adopts a conceptual hierarchy of avoidance, prevention and mitigation.
Where impacts cannot be avoided or prevented, mitigation measures, including compensation, are considered. Habitat banking in general and third party habitat banking specifically are proactive mitigation measures that can be applied on a landscape level to achieve desired outcomes, including the sustainability of fisheries.
I believe it's also important to recognize that the enabling of the innovation of third party banking under the Fisheries Act could help deliver what are generally referred to as “stackable benefits”. One could easily envision a fish habitat banking project that creates ecological goods and services for wetlands, for species at risk, and for carbon offsets—in short, a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
This then brings me to the practical application of third party banking.
In support of the OWA Class EA, we have published more than 40 environmental best management practices for the construction of waterpower facilities. Three of these BMPs are specific to fisheries species at risk and were developed with the input and advice of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. I'd like to focus, however, on the partnership between our association and Ducks Unlimited Canada in their preparation and publication of the BMP for wetlands and waterpower facility construction. The document advises that:
The restoration or creation of wetland habitat requires input from a multidisciplinary team...to develop an adaptive strategy based on a critical analysis of the abiotic features of the landscape. Engagement and/or retention of agencies experienced in wetland restoration/creation and management such as Ducks Unlimited Canada will inform and enrich the design of wetland creation projects.
In short, while in some instances a proponent may have the capacity to apply mitigation strategies, including habitat banking, in others there is a clear and recognized role for subject matter experts, particularly those in the business of on-the-ground stewardship, such as Ducks Unlimited Canada, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Trout Unlimited and others.
For waterpower projects, which in Ontario take up to eight years to complete from environmental assessment to commissioning, regardless of size, the opportunity to proactively bank habitat as a potential mitigation measure, either by the proponent or in partnership with a third party organization, is particularly relevant, especially on a landscape scale. Enabling this measure through the Fisheries Act will undoubtedly unlock the art and the science of the possible.
The OWA fully recognizes and appreciates the significant regulatory and policy work that is required to implement third party habitat banking. In our view, it is well worth the effort. Based on my experience as a member of the Ontario species at risk program advisory committee as well as the Wetland Conservation Strategy Advisory Panel, I can assure committee members that there has been significant collaborative thought devoted to the concept and application of third party banking, which the Department of Fisheries and Oceans can leverage. I can also assure you that our organization is prepared to contribute to these efforts.
Thanks again for the opportunity to speak with you today. I look forward to the entertainment of questions.